Boundary-making as an Expression of the Savior Archetype

7/27/2020

What are your thoughts and reflections from the presentation, "Boundary-making as an Expression of the Savior Archetype"?

5 Comments

Jo Marie Thompson

7/27/2020 09:50:27 pm

I am interested in what Don said about despair being a kind of inflation or inundation with unconscious contents. A while back a friend and I had taken to addressing each day with the question "What is the God/dess of the day?" as a way of asking what wanted tending, sacrifice, feeding. Recently I picked the practice up again during a wave of overwhelming despair and started to look up Goddesses of despair and desolation. I was surprised at how many there are. Many of them come with the descriptors of "inauspicious" or "not celebrated" which seems too bad. When I actively tried to address these Goddesses I felt, of course, that unboundaried despair to be carry-able, manage-able, and boundaried in some way. So I wondered if the images of the deities, or in fact all the living symbols, in as much as they help boundary an experience, are aspects of the savior function. I think of how many times I've gone to my altar to look at numinous images there during times of fear, grief, or other overwhelming emotions.

Marilyn Ashbaugh

7/27/2020 10:16:59 pm

I have been thinking about some framework/ boundary that I can place around current events and the god Pan, Limitations (from the I Ching) and the Scapegoat were some I’ve been considering. When I read Don’s summary that included Savior and boundaries I knew I wanted to listen and participate.

And there was the experience of being muted [on Zoom]. With all the noise of Pan, who and what are being muted? Certainly we have muted nature and natural boundaries. Is Covid the god that has come to save us from ourselves? Certainly our daily lives have been placed on pause/ on mute. If, as I misquote Jung, our dis-eases become our gods, is not COVID-19 the penultimate example of this?

And the technology. My device had a tap to speak button but I tapped it and remained muted. Does technology give some a voice and take it away from others?

Muted or not, I am grateful to have the opportunity to participate in zoom Thursday groups.

George Sehy

7/28/2020 10:32:21 am

I wonder how children reacting to COVID? What are the new games and the new songs they are coming up with in response to COVID? They, in their most natural and unprotected way, may be a good indicator of the need for a boundary making savior. Indeed, the instincts themselves seem to be activated in some way to "save us" and to protect us from deadly harm. I know that I can only take in so much news and then I have to cut it out for fear it will overwhelm me and depress me. I am aware that I need a boundary maker even in this. We seem to require someone who can "read" what the time is saying to understand our own particular response. Thanks for the group again.

Kathy Stiffney

8/1/2020 09:57:56 am

As we talked about boundaries and what in our life provides them for us , my thinking went automatically to the boundaries our bodies (duh, I'm a bodyworker!) provide and how our bodies will speak, if only we listen. Our physical being acts as the channel that links the small body of water to the depths of the ocean. It will inform us when the waters are threatening to overtake us. What is "us" psychologically and physically will speak together and sometimes very loudly.

Donice Wooster

8/2/2020 05:13:31 pm

After this discussion, I thought about the relationship between therapist and client. Savior is sometimes (maybe often?) projected on an analyst or therapist, and how that plays out could tell us something about the savior archetype. The therapist/analyst is a boundary maker, and I think must take care not to be seduced by the projection and take on the role of savior, but rather help the client notice and respond to inner images of the savior that dwells within.

Boundary-making as an Expression of the Savior Archetype

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